Meaning of "to rolf"
We have a little dispute about this in our team at work.
Rolf is a German male name. But someone said, he saw online, that "to rolf" is a verb in American Slang, which means "to vomit".
And indeed on dict.cc there is an entry in the dictionary saying that.
But in virtually every other source I tracked down, there is no mention of this.
I found three different meanings:
- Male Name
- Rolling on laughing floor (?)
- using a special massaging technique (Rolfing)
So, my question is, is there a possible meaning in any kind of English for "to rolf" that equals "to vomit" or something similar?
Being from Norway, I instantly recognized what the title was referring to.
Norway also has the male name Rolf, and the slang phrase "rope på Rolf" ("to call for Rolf") means "to vomit". It refers to the pronunciation of "Rolf" being somewhat similar to the sound you make when you vomit
From 1825 to 1920 about 800 000 Norwegians emigrated to America. (Norwegian Wikipedia article). I would not be surprised if they brought slang with them, although I can not find any sources for when the slang appeared in the Norwegian language
I didn't know of it, but there seems to be a slang expression to ralph, meaning "to vomit," according to this buzzfeed post:
- Ralph
Sorry everyone named Ralph, but you have to admit there’s almost an onomatopoeia to this one. It also kind of seems like something a guy named Ralph would say.
Try an alternate spelling, replace the "o" with "a".
And/or replace the "f" with "ph" (same English sound).
I believe the name "Rolf" is commonly Anglicized into "Ralph"
Urban Dictionary (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ralfing) says ralfing is
"The sound created by somebody noisily vomiting due to excess alcohol consumption"
I've heard this expression for decades in reference to "loud vomiting" (not limited to alcohol vomiting as stated above).
HTH